This invention relates to a three-pole magnetic recording head.
Both perpendicular and longitudinal recording techniques are used for recording and reading back data stored in a magnetic medium. In perpendicular recording the prior art consists mainly of monopole read-write heads on soft underlayer media or two-pole heads with and without soft underlayers. Both such heads have low write field gradients. It is known that low field gradients can be ameliorated by a shielded write pole. Prior approaches also suffer from relatively wide readback pulse widths. In longitudinal recording the prior art consists of two-pole heads and MR (magneto-resistive) heads with an MR element in the gap between the two poles. Having an MR element in the gap, however, imposes geometric constraints on track width and sensor thickness.